Cold
by halcyonranhuer
Summary: A submas two-shot. Nobori is busy, leaving Kudari lonely. Showing the perspectives of two brothers.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Kudari stared idly at the digital clock; brightly lit block like digits flashing the time. He drummed his fingers on his table while he laid his head on an unfinished pile of paperwork. After what seemed like eternity to him which was apparently just five minutes, the silver head sat up in a sudden motion and peeked over to look at his brother's desk.<p>

Nobori wasn't there.

Sighing, Kudari flopped on his swivel chair. He mindlessly flipped his papers and documents while anticipating the moment when his brother would stepped in the workroom.

Today was boring, so was yesterday, so was the day before and so was last week. Every week, although many, there were barely any challengers who were truly able to face him, Kudari, one of the two subway masters of the well-known Battle Subway in Raimon city (Nimbasa), who managed the double and super double lines. Trainers who came here always left with their heads low and their pride crushed. It had to be that way, as other than managing monorails in the whole of the Isshu region (Unova), the subway masters were also famous for being challenging opponents. Hence every day was somewhat of the same routine, making him feel that every day was somewhat mundane.

It was now eight thirty at night. Kudari, long given up with paper work, was now fondling with his white cap; his silver hair in a mess, stray locks caught in the occassional breeze. Then in the silence, there was a sudden buzz on the table. Kudari quickly ripped his phone off the table. "Finally! Nii-san finally replied!" He grinned as he held his phone tightly. Kudari had been sending endless calls and messages to him, but it seemed that his workaholic brother was too busy to reply until now.

_Kudari, get your own dinner tonight. I'll be busy._ was the message on the screen.

Silence seeped back into the room again as Kudari leaned on the chair. "Haha... Seems like it will just be you and me again." He looked at his pokemon and gave it a lopped sided sort of grin. Elecktross whimpered softly upon seeing his master's dull grey eyes and the lack of cheer in his voice. Kudari quietly stood up and headed home, which was an apartment a stone's throw from their workplace.

* * *

><p>Kudari was stuffing rice into his mouth. It was dry and stale and sauce that accompanied it tasted terrible. However that was what he would expect from food packages from convenience stalls, which was why Kudari would usually skipped meals if Nobori did not eat with him. Today was an exception though. Kudari was hungry; he did not have breakfast or lunch today as Nobori rushed off to work early this morning. So he missed his timely breakfast with his brother. However during lunch, when Kudari was patiently waiting at a station, his brother again called to inform him that he could not make it for lunch and said that he would have dinner with him. Until the last text said otherwise.<p>

However this had become common, ever since they became subway masters three years ago, Nobori just grew busier and busier, both given paperwork after paperwork and challengers after challengers. Being a silent and serious person, Nobori only spoke to Kudari about trivial matters when they were alone doing anything except work. However times like these had severely lessened over the years, now, he barely heard his brother utter a single word to him, even when Kudari was right opposite his desk, on the other side.

However the among the rare times when Kudari heard his brother speak to him…

_"Please finish this paperwork, Kudari."/ "Manage the Subway for me while I am away for a challenger." _

They were nothing more than asking him to handle and do jobs.

As time passed, Kudari became thrilled at just being able to see Nobori, dressed in his usual black suit, pants and white formal shirt staring intensely at the document or when Nobori walking to inspect the trains when he was there. However in these few months, Kudari rarely saw him. A text from his brother already had him smiling a little.

Kudari tossed the food package into the bin; he barely finished the meal. To be frank, it was disgusting and he also felt a little unwell. The cold from yesterday seemed to have gotten worse. But he quickly dismissed it.

Kudari sighed and looked around, the walls around the living room at home seemed dreary and old. Dust layered the remote controls of the television and the television itself. The leather sofa was clean, with nicely embroil flora cushions placed neatly on both ends. The table tops were bare, no used cups, no dirty dishes. One bed was slightly messy, that was all and it always seemed to be Kudari's.

Probably it was something that had to do with their personalities. They were twins, completely looking alike, the same face replicated twice. However if one looked harder, there will be certain differences between them, like Kudari was a bit shorter than Nobori and slightly smaller in size, not that Kudari wanted to mention it or that Nobori's hair was slightly longer and curled a little. But despite their looks, their personalities and characters were polar opposites. Nobori was diligent, organized, serious and stoic. Furthermore he was very quiet and was a bit of an anti-social, but he was efficient and always completed his work quickly. Kudari, on the other hand, was more of a scatterbrain and messy, usually leaving his work till before deadlines where he would rushed to complete them. Kudari was also a little nosier and more carefree as compared to his elder twin. Nobori never seemed to smile but Kudari had that smile of his every day.

Back then, Kudari used to think that it was the paperwork that kept Nobori so busy; hence Kudari decided to work harder in hopes of lightening his brother's burden. But he later learned that there was actually a lot more to that. Running a real subway stretched around the entire region with many commuters boarding their trains and managing a pokemon battle subway at the same time was not very simple. At first it was bearable, but as time went by, it was became a heavy burden to both brothers emotionally, physically and their relationship wise.

Yet it was their dream to do something like that when they were young. Nobori and Kudari made that promise outside a Joltik cave, their small pinky swear and pinky swears are promises of the highest caliber. And they did fulfilled it.

Upon thinking that, Kudari suddenly tasted bitterness in his mouth. "It must be the sauce, probably expired." he chuckled coldly, and his voice shaking.

Yet it was their dream slowly breaking their bond. How ironic.

It was almost midnight, Kudari was resting his head on the sofa. Fatigue was overwhelming him; his emotions were overwhelming. For some reason that he did not understand, Kudari also felt that his shadow was unusually big. He felt small, insecure, lost, like there was a hole in his heart.

He felt empty. Lonely. Twins were not supposed to feel that way. Should there not have been some kind of unexplained special connection to each of them? Telepathy? The ability to feel each other's pain? Then they were still be able to be at each other's side in a way.

The excuse "Nii-san's busy" was probably not going to work soon. Kudari had enough; enough of the excuses, enough of the smiling facades, enough with...leaving him behind. Then something snapped inside him.

He was jabbing buttons on his phone before he knew it. He called Nobori.

"What is it, Kudari?"

"Nii-san, come back...home..."

"I can't. Didn't I inform you through the message? You should know that this month's June and there are heightning numbers-"

"Nii-san, just come home." Kudari interrupted.

"... Stop being a kid, Kudari. Please act like a grown up, you're 21." Nobori muttered, and then sighed audibly, before abruptly hanging up the phone.

Kudari stayed on the line for a while, hearing the dead repetitive tone on the other line before dropping his cell phone to proceed staring at the ceiling. It was a bright, soft light peach colour, but when it was reflected in his eyes; the colour somehow died.

Kudari did not like this house; it was awfully cold. He looked outside the window. It was neither winter nor autumn yet, how strange... why would today's night be so cold then? He covered his pale face with his gloved hands and somehow soothed himself to sleep.

The next morning, Kudari woke up at the same place he fell asleep last night. His body was aching all over due to the position he slept in. However Kudari was staring at the same cup he used last night in the basin.

Nobori did not come home after all.

* * *

><p>Today, he felt exceedingly terrible; he could not even stomach breakfast. Hence all Kudari did was to stare into thin air before realizing that he wasn't exactly early for work.<p>

By the time he reached the workplace (in which he was quite late), he spotted Nobori at a corner, seriously talking to co-workers. Kudari then excitedly waved to his brother hoping for a favorable response from his brother. However Nobori glared at him before walking away.

"N-Nii-san..!" Kudari exclaimed, shocked by Nobori's cold gesture and rushed after him.

Just then, one of the subway employees, walked up to him before he could catch up with his elder brother; her face a little red and she was slightly panting too. "Kudari-san! Where have you been?! We were searching for you for the whole morning! There was an urgent report meant for the department you were handling and you weren't there to handle that document! The trains nearly ran late because of that!" she huffed angrily.

Kudari stared at her for a moment, trying to register the information bomb and after a minute or so, he mumbled a "sorry" before heading off to do his work, leaving the employee a little annoyed.

So he troubled Nobori again.

Today Kudari had ten challengers; which was quite a high number of pokemon trainers. Sighing, he gave his pokemon a small smile before facing the first one of the day. There he went, battle after battle; the first nine was not much of a hassle and Kudari thought he could return to his work soon and quietly spent the rest of the day behind his work desk, until the tenth trainer came stepping.

"My name is Black." The young pokemon boy trainer announced his name.

Black? That was a weird name. Kudari then recalled the fact the pokemon trainers with weird names have somewhat supreme battle skills. It was like an unexplained natural phenomenon. An example would be that the champion of the Kanto region was named Red or that the champion of the Johto Region was actually named Gold, either way both held respected titles.

And so with that in mind, Kudari knew that trainer would have no ordinary battle skills. After all, there was a young lad named Cheren who managed to conquer the single line, in short defeating Nobori.

"Nobori Nii-san..." he thought silently, and all the ugly feelings suppressed by the previous battles he focused on all flowed out again, making Kudari feel sicker. He quickly tried to compose himself again.

"What Nii-chan said was right, I am acting like a child. I needed to focus on battle." Kudari coughed a little, before raising his pokeball to his chin. The feelings were then once more forced into box; they would be hindrance to battle. A subway master have no need of these feelings. However by doing so, Kudari also neglected everything else other than that pokemon trainer and the battle that was preceding.

"I am Kudari. I am a Subway Boss. I like Double Battles. I like combinations of two Pokémon. And I like winning more than anything else. So let's start a great battle in which every Pokémon uses various moves."

"Ok, I look forward to an entertaining battle."

Intense, that was what the battle was like, even now. Kudari started feeling uncomfortably cold, worse than before and he was perspiring profusely, his loose strands of hair caught in the flow of perspiration droplets. He was panting harder than before. Probably it was due to the intense battle, since they were both down to their last pokemon.

Black was not fazed at the least. In fact, the lad was smiling as he returned his pokemon which fainted into the pokeball. In short, only Emboar was left on the field.

The battlefield was in a wreck, the internal of the train cabin badly damaged and there were occasional debris that flew to both trainers when their pokemon clashed roughly against one another. That was because earlier on, Black's Hydreigon unleashed quite an unsightly attack that caused nearly more than half of the cabin to be wrecked. That pokemon took a lot of Kudari's physical and mental strength.

"Venoshock." Kudari ordered Garbodor, which started excreting venomous liquids around its body,

He then turned his head to Black; it is indeed a wonder how that boy remained unscathed and undaunted all this while. The subway master himself is already struggling to stand, hurt from the flying remnants of the train cabin and the continuous feedback of pokemon attacks as they was no longer contained due to the destroyed cabin.

"Hurry up, use heat crush!" Black quickly interrupted, giving a signal to his pokemon.

Just before Kudari could open his mouth, his vision went a little blurry and the ceiling started to spin. Then, there was an indescribable amount of heat that seemingly burnt his skin and flames enveloped his sight. Kudari was sent flying back next from the intensity of that insanely strong attack, together with his pokemon. He flew across the walkway and hit the metallic debris that laid behind him.

He felt coppery tasting liquid in his mouth and his head hurt badly. His vision was creating double images in its blurred state and vision started turning black. When he managed to regain a little of his conscience, he felt his face against the cool metallic ground and quietly wondered how he ended up there.

Hearing a faint announcement from the computerized referee in the distance that Black was declared winner, Kudari once again fell into a void of darkness.

He lost the battle…

Then began a dreamlike state, Kudari saw Nobori in a misty area. Nobori began to walk. Kudari tried chasing after him. Nobori walked faster. Kudari tried calling after him. Nobori just walked further. Nobori was disappearing now. Kudari screamed, no voice came out. Kudari starting running. Nobori disappeared into the distance. Kudari stood alone- _left alone_. The feelings that were painfully boxed up all just suddenly burst out.

Fear. Terror. Loneliness. Emptiness. Sorrow. Grief. Uncertainty. Lost. Hopeless. Panic.

**_Unloved._**

"No... DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND, NOBORI NII-SAN!"

Kudari cried.

* * *

><p>Kudari woke up with a jolt; his hair falling all over messily; his nose a little blocked and his eyes wet. He was uncomfortable and realized his clothes were unusually damp. Not only that, he was not wearing gloves and when he tried moving his right hand to wipe off the tears, he found that it was connected to an IV drip. There was this sickly smell of disinfection in the air and he was mostly bandaged up. The surrounding walls were an unfamiliar combination of pale yellow and white. It then came to him that he was in a hospital; lying on a hospital bed.<p>

Kudari fiddled with his hands trying hard to recall what happened. There was a battle which he lost. Kudari cringed at that memory. The trainer was Black and his pokemon unleashed quite a nasty attack. And he got injured and fainted. But he had breaks of semi-consciousness, he heard something about a very bad viral infection and non-life threatening injuries as well as always seeing a figure dressed in black, staying beside him.

Kudari strained his neck a little to look at the seats near to the right. They were all empty however. He laughed sadly. What was he expecting? Suddenly feeling very exhausted, he decided to close his eyes. The room was abnormally cold as well and Kudari pulled his blanket up, sniffling a little. The hospital never tuned the air conditioner well right? After all, it was neither autumn nor winter.

After a few minutes, the sound of faint footsteps could be heard throughout the room. They stopped right beside his bed and in that moment, a warm gloved hand grabbed his very own cold one. Then in the midst of darkness he was looking at, a familiar voice was heard.

"Sorry Kudari... When you get well, we are going to have dinner together every day no matter. It was foolish of me to leave you alone all this while so..." the voice trailed off into a strained whisper. "I'm sorry…"

And suddenly, Kudari didn't feel so cold anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: Hey! Thanks for reading this. I just have to say that I may not be perfect in English so please feel free to correct me. Also, this is my first time describing a pokemon battle, so it may not be all that good... As for sustaining injuries and the battle area being destroyed in battle, I do think it is possible and I just wanted to add it in for effect... hehe. This is my first time writing a fanfic and I really like the twins. And I used their Japanese names, although the quote is taken from the English version just so you know and I am not familiar with pokemon attacks from the black and white game so please pardon me as well. Sorry about Black's personality. I just wanted to make him look bad ass.<strong>

** Please review! I may upload Nobori's part if this goes well.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Here you go guys, Nobori's part. Sorry if it is a little late, but better late than never? Thank you for reviewing and reading the story. Please enjoy! Just one thing:**

**I put all their names in the Japanese context, so Elesa (Gym Leader of Nimbasa) is addressed as Kamitsure. I hope I didn't get them wrong. Please tell me if I did!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters here! **

* * *

><p>Nobori flipped the pages of paper clipped on his board silently, his mind focused. He had just sent a message to Kudari, saying that he could not accompany him for dinner. Work was too much and never seemed to end no matter how much he tried to cut it down. Even the usual sedentary Kudari was working doubly as hard for that matter. He had been in his other office for almost the whole day, the place where he usually stayed to monitor the trains. Somehow in here, there was a sense of discomfort, he would have prefer to work in the other office where Kudari was in.<p>

Nobori sighed, rubbing his temples, silver locks caught between his fingers. He stared at the pile of paperwork and his forehead creased into a frown.

Certainly terrible. There was no time to waste on such thoughts; it was better to get down to work.

Nobori's phone rang at around midnight, jolting him out from his trance like manner of working. Slightly upset and annoyed that someone had disrupted his concentration, and that he was also a little cranky from exhaustion, he nearly lashed out on the caller.

The caller turned out to be Kudari.

Nobori was not very elated to pick up the phone, much less talk to his younger twin. There was so much work yet to be done. Can't Kudari see that there was no time for idle chit chat?

"Nii-san... Come back home..." Kudari's voice sounded strained and pleading.

But Nobori was more perplexed at the fact that he had not finished the work due by the end of the week and he knew that tomorrow's workload will definitely add on to that pile. Did Kudari not understand the nature of work?

He tried to explain to Kudari about the tight situation he is in however he was just interrupted by the other begging him to come home.

Kudari just probably wanted to sleep with him again. Sometimes, his brother childish attitude annoyed him and Nobori saw no reason to compromise to his twin. There was no time for this sort of useless entertainment. With that he told Kudari off; Kudari needed to understand. With that, he hung up the phone without as much as saying a goodbye.

It was almost 2am in the early dawn when he finished. He stretched a little and realised he had yet to pause for a break to have dinner. After making himself a cup of coffee and taking his dinner left in a plastic container by that gym leader Kamitsure, Nobori slumped against the chair. It was hard and uncomfortable, but he was too tired to care about it.

It was not long before he dragged himself to the nearby couch and slept on it. That night, he dreamt of the past. The sky was a streak of vermillion and its rays danced upon the grass and the ground, dyeing them in the same colour as the sky. He was panting from having walked so much, slightly frustrated for not being able to find his brother for quite a while.

"Kudari! Kudari!"

"Nii-chan, over here!" Upon hearing the familiar voice of that someone he had been searching for over an hour, he dashed towards the direction of where that voice came from.

"Kudari!" he called out, when he saw his twin squatting in front of the Joltik cave, all bruised up. It scared him to think that his younger brother actually had entered the cave _without_ a pokemon. Still Kudari did not seem to care about his current condition and held out a toy train in his small hands. Nobori realised that it was the one he dropped when he entered this cave with Kudari the first time without knowing anything about it. When they were running away from the wild pokemon, Kudari nearly fell into a hole at the side and when Nobori was helping him, he had dropped his favourite toy train.

Apparently that idiot twin of his decided to go back to retrieve his brother's missing toy. "Stupid Kudari…" he muttered as he hugged his younger brother.

"Ne ne, nii-chan. Let's build a big train so people can go wherever they want and also tell them that we are great pokemon masters!" Kudari giggled, as he returned the hug.

"Yeah of course. Isn't that always our dream?"

"Pinky swear?"

Under the fading last rays of the sunlight, two small fingers entwined each other, their foreheads touching one another.

"Ouch!" Nobori suddenly leapt up, as he felt an uncomfortable shock of electricity. Annoyed, he turned to look for the source of interruption. It turned out to be a yellow looking furball, which leapt from between his legs onto Kudari's shoulder.

"Ooooh, Joltik-chan! You followed me!" Kudari gave his brother his usual grin as he held the pokemon. "Joltik-chan actually helped me in the cave! Well I shall keep you then!"

"What are you thinking, the head mistress won't allow that!"

"Haha!"

"KUDARIIII!"

Nobori woke up with a jolt and a pounding headache. Somehow, that felt quite nostalgic. Nobori and Kudari had grew up in a foster home. It was their dream to travel somewhere beyond the boundaries of the home, hence they had a deep interest in locomotives, especially the train. The train which could bring hordes of people from one place to another, so that everyone could travel. Nobori promised that he would anything to realize that dream, the passionate dream of both his and Kudari's.

It was not easy. Every day was a struggle to keep up with the workload, but Nobori was determined to fulfil and maintain that dream. He would work because of his promise to Kudari. Yet he somehow felt that Kudari seemed sad. Why? Did they not fulfil their dream?

It was not that he did not notice, but he instead remained silent on that matter. If he had voiced out, it might possibly strained the relationship between his brother and him. He knew that Kudari and he were quite different. He knew how the adults seemed to favour him but not his brother, he knew how they tried to separate them. He promised that he would protect Kudari no matter what and that included protecting his dream. Hence Nobori would not mind the workload, even if it seemed to tower over him. However what worried him, was that recently last week, Kudari was delaying the documents, therefore also delaying his schedule.

As he thought, he got a new set of clothes, (he had the habit of leaving some of his clothes here due to many overtime shifts) and changed into them, before immersing in his work once more.

The destination of their dream was victory. Nobori knew that without hard work, nothing could be obtained. He could not understand why Kudari was so childish, they cannot sit back and relax; it was the nature of their occupations. Furthermore they had expenses to handle; they needed to support themselves. The world was never a bed of roses, to climb up to their current position without anything to start from the beginning, Nobori had to understand the cruel harsh truth.

"Where is Kudari?" Nobori voiced out; it was late in the morning and Kudari was not here yet. He needed to pass an urgent report to the other administration staff Kudari was handling- only that brat had not turned up yet. Hence, the whole office here, became chaos in the image of hell.

With that delayed passing, (Nobori had to give to the head in the other section instead) everything this morning was delayed as well. At least the trains still managed to run on time. The employees were scared stiff when the whole report timetable was almost unable to circulate to the other side; the staff there would be uncoordinated and that was an issue not to be looked away.

Hence Nobori was beyond furious to see Kudari strolling in late while waving his hand happily at him. "Nobori nii-san-" Kudari chirped, only to aggravate his anger. Seriously, what was he thinking? Did he not know how much trouble he had cause? Hence Nobori ignored his brother's gesture. He had no mood for any more trouble and the lack of sleep was getting to him. In the hustle and bustle of the crowd of employees, he had failed to hear an exasperated cry calling out to him.

It seemed that Nobori did not have challengers today, which was good, as Nobori could not spare the time to face against them. His schedule was fully packed after all. Settling down, he typed on the computer and read his documents, in which he overheard some employees talking outside.

"Kudari-san has caused a lot of trouble this morning."

"Yes, thank goodness Nobori-san was so reliable! Don't you think it is weird how they could even be twins?"

Nobori blinked upon hearing that. Yes…_ Why couldn't he have a more reliable twin rather one that whines about company so much and so damn irresponsible about his work?_ Sighing, Nobori leaned on his hand as he continued his work. It was then he thought up of those unpleasant memories.

_Cheren._

It was not long ago that he had faced that certain trainer. That day started out usual, until he had someone telling him he had a challenger. He thought that he would quickly wrap the battle up as he stood before the younger boy. Clad in a blue jacket and wearing glasses, the pokemon trainer named Cheren stood proud before him, a stance saying that he would not lose to the subway master. He somehow reminded Nobori of himself when he was younger, able to face against gym leaders without batting an eyelash.

"Thank you for riding the Battle Subway today. I am the Subway Boss Nobori. I will choose the next destination based on your talent. Do you understand Pokémon well? Can you hold on to your principle? Will you go on to victory or defeat? All aboard!"

"It certainly will be… victory." The stoic boy finally grinned. Nobori frowned and pulled his cap.

"Let's go, Chandelure."

It was disgusting to admit but Cheren's abilities did matched up to his arrogance. Nobori was forced down to his final pokemon while his opponent toyed with the possibilities he could do with two. A pokemon battle was not only the measure of the pokemon's strength and trust in its owners. The start always had to begin with a silent battle of strategies. However, because of the rising workload in that week, Nobori had lost the mind battle quickly. Cheren knew that his opponent was distracted and he took advantage on that.

His lost was inevitable then.

When he came out of the infirmary, he saw a white ball on the chair. Kudari was curled up in that empty hallway alone. The lightings were awfully dim then and everything reflected in a dull pale white. He had nearly missed Kudari at first, if not for the sudden movement.

Upon seeing his brother, Kudari had leapt and hugged him so tightly that Nobori thought his arm would dislocate the second time.

"Oww… Kudari, please lighten your grip…" He mumbled through the ball of silver hair.

"Nii-san! I'm glad you are alright…" Nobori did not hear the rest as Kudari rubbed his face into his shirt, but he had caught something along the lines of being worried and half scared to death. He gently patted Kudari's head. Nobori silently relished this rare moment of bonding, isolated from the workers in the empty hallway.

Nobori blinked his eyes, realizing that he had a small grin on his face and that his hand also had stopped scribbling on the report. He looked over the other side. Kudari was not present. It was then he recalled that his brother had to attend to some challengers. Truthfully, he had felt a twinge of emptiness and uncomfortable silence. He assured himself that Kudari would be back quite soon as he knew that his twin also held the equal record of being one of the unparalleled pokemon masters.

It was after an hour later when the doors flew upon. A flustered employee at the doorway, frantically talking. Her words became a series of blabbers after that one line.

"Kudari collapsed in battle."

Suddenly, Nobori had felt like a train just crashed onto him, smashing his world to tiny bits. He did not know when he had ran out of the room, he did not see the stares of the confused workers, and neither had he stopped to hear their hushed chatters. He only knew that he wished to take back that moment of thought about Kudari. He only could see the signs heading towards the battle room. He could only hear his panting breaths and the heavy beating of his heart and they were loud, as if blasting off right beside his ears. Nobori jabbed the button of the elevator which brought him to the battle subway. He had to gag; he could taste the bitter regret in his mouth.

Nobori was not focused when he listened to the doctor. All he felt then was a sense of lingering emptiness. What was the word again? Yes, he felt_ cold_. Too cold for comfort. He had lose track of how many hours he sat beside Kudari in the plastic chair, saying his name over and over, like some chant, so probably that Kudari might finally rouse.

Nobori recalled that the doctor said that Kudari had a bad viral infection and he chuckled coldly. Why had he not noticed even all this while? When he proceeded to brush a stray lock off Kudari's face, he paused to stare at his reflection. Kudari seemed thinner, weaker and more fragile than he had been originally. Nobori retracted his hands and stared at the windows curtains, fluttering slightly in the breeze.

Kudari felt cold.

Silently, he stood up and exited the room. He had decided to head home for the night. Nobori felt strange to actually put the key into the keyhole and opening the door which was supposedly his home. It was his first night in many days. When he came in, the house was dark and the light seemed to flicker a little when he switched them on. The house played a silent melody. The dripping sound from the tap in the kitchen seemed to be amplified. A white cup was sitting in the basin where it was filled with water to the brim. Nobori turned off the knob tightly as he looked at it for a while.

The quiet was slightly unnerving for Nobori. He never experienced that sort of silence before. Whatever Nobori did, there always seemed to be a loud ghostly echo in return. When he took out the trash, he noticed the barely finished boxes of convenience store bentos in them. When he cleaned the living room, he noticed a messed up corner of the couch. He noticed the phone out of place. He noticed and noticed, every single detail of a single person in the place addressed as home.

The next day early noon, he had saw the gym leader standing in the hallway, a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She smiled and then thrust the flowers into his arms.

"I have to go soon. There's a lively challenger waiting for me. You change the flowers for him." She laughed.

"Gym Leader, thanks a lot… I mean you even got dinner for me." Nobori said, his voice low.

"Kamitsure. I told you to call me that. Anyway it wasn't me who initiated the idea of getting dinner for you. Thank your brother, he was a bit too busy to get some for you, so he requested me to do it instead." She waved her hand and strode off. "We'll see each other soon. I really want to battle this trainer."

"Pokemon trainer?"

"Yes, her name's White!" Kamitsure disappeared at the corner of the corridor before Nobori could say anything else. Nobori stood in silence for a few seconds before he entered the room and it was then, he had saw Kudari fidgeting a little. It was Kudari's trait from young and he knew that when Kudari did that, it meant that he was very uncomfortable. He placed the flowers on the table as he proceeded to look at Kudari. He was sure that his younger brother was awake.

_Kudari… please hear this…_

"Sorry Kudari... When you get well, we are going to have dinner together every day no matter. It was foolish of me to leave you alone all this while so..." He felt his voice trailing off into a strained whisper. "I'm sorry…"

In which afterwards, he fished out the toy train and placed it beside his brother. Just then, Nobori turned towards the spring breeze wafting through the window. The room had seemed to be brighter now. It seemed…warmer.

When he looked back down, Kudari was smiling.

-owari-

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you have enjoyed this two-shot! If possible, please review, thank you! <strong>


End file.
